
links.push(`dispelling_nk_myths',
    `https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNf3wM0feb8')

<h1>Notes on Dispelling myths about North Korea</h1>

<todo>
Put relevant images and sources

<h2>Introduction</h2>

<p>
These notes are from this <a href="links.fetch(dispelling-NK-myths)">video</a>.
The presention was made my Suzy Kim of Rutgers University.

<p>
The presentation, despite being designed for K-12 teachers, provides a succint
picture of North Korea as a a recurrent target for misrepresentation in western
(especially American) media. In truth, it comes to be shown, North Korea's
"othering" by the USA, is a direct consequence of the war fought with the United
States over its communist policies.

<h2>Notes and summary</h2>

<p>
The video presents four major myths propagated by American (and also probably
most western countries) regarding North Korea.

<ol>
<li> Crazy and irrational leader.
<li> Braiwashed people, a corollay of myth 1.
<li> Failed rogue state.
<li> Hermit kingdom in the brink of collapse.
</ol>

<ul>
<li> 
The first couple of myths are a consequence of a lack of cultural and
historical knowledge regarding North Korea and a incapacity to leverage the
critiscism aimed at North Korea to themselves (after all, America has their
fair share of fanatics that blindly follow their leader).

<p>
To illustrate the general shortage of information when it comes to North
Korea, we are shown an North Korean archeological discovery, that of a cave
marked with an "unicorn" symbol that is turned into laughing matter by
American news. The point confusion is the word "kirin"(or quirin in chinese,
the original from which kirin derived) that gets translated to unicorn, but
truly refers to an mythological animal (and later to the giraffe). The
engravings on the cave were made around 2000 years ago, but media chose to
portray as crazy people that believed in unicorns.

<li> 
For the third myth, a common piece evidence takes the form of a circulated
picture taken by NASA, showing North Korea as a country with less lights and,
therefore, less technology and development. The picture though, did not
undergo proper preparation and ends being a misrepresentation of the actual
state of the country. In fact, Pyongyang was on the most modern cities in Asia
during the sixties. Further, merely having large electrical consumption does
not necessarily implicate being a advanced societey.

<p>
The idea of North Korea being a rogue state is also a consequence from the its
war with America, one of the most bloodiest in modern times with a large
number of live lost by both sides. The tremendous human loss suffered by North
Korea, coupled with the massive bombings and threats of nuclear violence, made
them tremendously suspicious ofthe outsite world, and was a sure propellent
for the development of the their culture of Juche - that is, self-reliance.

<li> 
The last myth takes a double form: first, North Korea doesn't engage in any
international ventures; second, North Korea is on a dire situation, on the
bring of collapsing.

<p>
The view of of North Korea as an hermit kingdom is not borne out of thin air.
Due to their experiences with the war, they learned to be distrusful of
outsiders, but that doesn't mean they are against international ventures. For
example, a South Korean automobile company was allowed to set up a factory
inside the North Korea (though, it may have closed in 2012); and they set up
their first internet cordal cable together with Orascom, an egyptian firm.
They also engage in inter-korean trade.

<p>
Also, their economic situation is widely exagerated, being much better, as
some research by the United Nations shows, than many countries in Asia. As the
research shows, their rate of malnutrition in children and rate of children
mortality is better than many other Asian countries.

<todo>
link research done by the UN and put relevant tables

<p>
There is also the common view that there is an constant problem of citzens
defecting to South Korea. This, again, is not without basis, but is also not the
full picture. The data that we have, shows that majority left North Korea
during the late ninities, with most of them citing economic reasons as the
deciding factor for leaving.

<p>
The nineties where tough time for North Korea, the fall of the Soviet Union,
the death of their only leader thus far, major weather disasters and a famine,
compounded in such a way that brougth the contry to the brink of collapsing.
Is not surprising, then, seeing this level of defectors during this time.

<p>
But, most interesting, is that the current total amount of North Korean
defectors (23000 as of 2018), pales in comparison to the amount that defected,
for example, East Germany during the the time of the Berlin Wall. By the time
both germanies where united, there were a total of 4.5 million East German
defectors.
</ul>

<todo>
Add current data on the number of NK defectors
<todo>
Put relevant research on NK and East Germany defectors

<h2>Summary</h2>

<p>
The general western view (especially of the USA) of North Korea is of a
totalitarian country where the population, either willingly or by necessity,
worshippes bumbling megalomaniac "dear leader" type, in short, a "othering" of
it, as if it were some strange land that, by some unfortunate events, became the
anti-america, the land of the unfree. This is mostly a fruit of propaganda,
since some basic cultural and historical knowledge of North Korea would quickly
show the contrary. Even worse is that a lot of the critiscism levied agaist
North Korea, that of country where cultists blidly follow a charismatic leader
(which is not even charismatic on the first place), can be easily applied to
many western countries, even moreso America.

<p>
In short, as usual, the United States is far more concerned on selling an idea
(here of the evils of a communist society) rather than showing truth, which is
not surprising, after all, all that a capitalist can really do is sell.
